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TFB - Daily News Summary - Jan. 17, 2018

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

THE FLORIDA BAR

Daily News Summary

An electronic digest of media coverage of interest to members of The Florida Bar compiled each workday by the Public Information and Bar Services Department and distributed to the Board of Governors, section and committee chairs, voluntary bar presidents, members of the judiciary and others.

Jan. 17, 2018

Education advocates upset that lower courts have denied their efforts to force Florida to enhance school funding and to alter school policies asked the Florida Supreme Court on Friday [Jan. 12] to take up their 9-year-old case. The case, known as Citizens for Strong Schools v. Florida State Board of Education, was filed by parents and education advocacy groups, including Orlando-based Fund Education Now. In December, the First District Court of Appeal sided with the state, saying judges cannot rule on the best way to educate the state’s students because those decisions, based on the state constitution, rest with lawmakers and the governor.

Florida voters may be asked in November to weigh in on medical malpractice. The General Revisions Committee of the Constitution Revision Commission on Friday [Jan. 12] agreed to move a proposed constitutional amendment focused on records of health care providers’ adverse incidents. The measure would make it clear that the guaranteed access to adverse medical-incident reports does not “abrogate attorney-client communications or work product privileges for patients, health care providers, or health care facilities.”

Florida strips felons of their right to vote at a higher rate than any other state, barring more than 10 percent of its overall adult population — including 21.5 percent of African-Americans — from the polls, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Sentencing Project. According to numerous historians, voting rights advocates and law groups, that racial disparity is no coincidence.

Republican state Rep. Bob Cortes on Tuesday [Jan. 16] called on Gov. Rick Scott to reassign a “heinous” murder-for-hire prosecution case away from State Attorney Aramis Ayala of Orlando. Her office contended that Scott no longer has any reason to remove cases from her review. “The author of the letter may not be aware this issue has been resolved,” a statement from Ayala’s office declared.

Nicholas D. Siegfried, a partner with Siegfried, Rivera, Hyman, Lerner, De La Torre, Mars & Sobel in Coral Gables, writes: “Florida’s construction lien law demands strict adherence by contractors in legal disputes with their customers. A recent ruling by the Fourth District Court of Appeal adds yet another example to a number of similar rulings against lienors who failed to follow the statutorily required mandates in the pursuit of their claim.”

Tampa tax attorney and certified financial planner Rebecca Walser hit the timing sweet spot with the Jan. 3 publication of her book “Wealth Unbroken: Growing Wealth Uninterrupted by Market Crashes, Taxes, or Even Death.” In the wake of the new tax laws, readers looking for advice drove the book up Amazon’s bestseller lists. The day after publication, it was No. 1 in Kindle nonfiction as well as topping four categories in personal finance and business and money. By Jan. 8, the print version of the book was out of stock on Amazon.